Terrorism and media: A Britney Spears-like symbiosis

Americans “need to stop putting terrorists on TV” and need to inform the public without airing graphic and violent footage of terrorist attacks, says Baker Institute energy fellow Amy Myers Jaffe on the Fuel Fix Blog. She writes that reports that the French gunman responsible for this week’s heinous terrorist crime was wearing a video camera raise disturbing new questions about the future of ongoing symbiotic links between terrorism and media.

“The French atrocity brings to the fore the most poisonous overlap between American and Middle East culture: the glorification of violence. It is not enough for Western commentators to lament about the need for a new generation across the Middle East to reject violence as a means for political expression. The social media savvy organizers of the Arab Spring have shown a willingness to do this. We Americans need to take the lead. We need to stop putting terrorists on TV. Once we do, we can comfortably suggest our allies in the Middle East do the same.”